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Wednesday, January 06, 2010

The Least Inspiring Post-Players-Only Meeting Quotes Ever?

A players-and-one-objective-observer-only meeting might have produced, if not better, more relevant quotes. We'll have to wait and see with regard to on-court results but full credit to the player or players who chose to hold this meeting right before the Hawks host the Nets. Someone(s) doesn't miss a trick.

Joe Johnson on the need to:

"...get back to playing with intensity, having fun. That's pretty much the difference. It seems as if we're just kind of out there, just going through the motions."

Marvin Williams:

"It is disappointing sometimes when you know you can do better and you're not."

Al Horford:

"It's just a lack of effort. People have to make the extra rotation, the extra offense. It has something to do with offense. If guys are not making shots, they tend to get a little discouraged. We still have to defend and rebound to give ourselves a chance to be in the game.

You've got to get back to being more consistent on defense. It's something we've been harping on all year that we've been doing a good job, but we have to put a whole game together."

The Hawks defense has been consistent this year (at least by my definition of consistent). They've slipped a bit (now at 1.073 points allowed per possession for the season) in losing five of the last six but stood at a season-tying best 1.057 points allowed per possession after the win in Minnesota.

Click on graph to enlarge.

The offense, however, peaked a couple of games earlier (1.16 points per possession after the Memphis win) and has been consistently dropping (now at 1.135 points per possession) despite long stretches of good offensive play in every game but the last.